On the Udder Hand

Having A Cow (Not a Bean) About Fake Milk Labels

Apr 29, 2010

First it was “milk.”Now, the problem is “yogurt,” and “cheese,” and even “ice cream” with no cream, or milk, or any dairy ingredient.

That’s why it’s time to renew the campaign to force the Food and Drug Administration to crack down on the misuse of dairy terms on products that have no relation whatsoever to real dairy products.You can read more about it in today’s USA Today.

On Thursday, the National Milk Producers Federation sent a letter of complaint pointing out multiple examples of these phony dairy goods using dairy terms they’re not supposed to.You can see illustrations posted at the new Facebook page that we’ve created specifically for this campaign: http://www.facebook.com/theydontgotmilk.

This is not the first time we’ve been down this path.Way back in 2000, NMPF sent a similar complaint, and at the time, warned that if the FDA did nothing, we’d see a growing proliferation of faux dairy items.The response from FDA:[crickets chirping in background].

So it’s time for a second go round.The law says milk means “the lacteal secretion from a dairy animal.”Beans don’t make that cut, nor do nuts, or rice, or hemp.But they all have grabbed the milk label for their own.And this isn’t bashing soy beans.Farmers need them…for their cows.But if the beans are to be made into a white liquid form, it should be called something other than milk (or yogurt, or cheese, etc.).

If you think FDA should do something about this, there’s a form on the NMPF website to write a letter to the FDA Commissioner:http://nmpf.org/fda-form.